Veterans enjoy special ‘therapeutic’ deer hunt at Coralville Lake

NORTH LIBERTY - Nine disabled military veterans enjoyed Iowa's celebrated deer hunting and each other's company during a special event sponsored by veterans groups and the Army Corps of Engineers this weekend at Coralville Lake.

Army veteran Nate Brooks of Mansfield, Ohio, who served three combat tours in Iraq and one in Bosnia, shot the morning's only deer, an 8-point buck that was field dressed by noon and on its way to Ruzicka's in Solon for free processing.

Brooks said three bucks stepped in front of his blind at 7:30 a.m. and he killed the largest with a double-lung shot while his blind mate, Army veteran James Dennis of Beecher, Ill., recorded video of the event.

'It was pretty exciting. We were exchanging high-fives right and left,” said Brooks.

Eight of the nine disabled veterans who enjoyed the opening day of Iowa's shotgun deer season are nonresidents and thrilled for the chance to hunt in a state with a well-deserved reputation for trophy whitetails.

English River Outfitters, a non-profit group that brings wounded warriors together in the healing atmosphere of nature, co-sponsored the hunt with the Corps of Engineers, which provided reserved hunting areas, and American Legion Post 460 in Solon, which provided some of the hunters' meals.

'Both nature itself and spending time with like-minded, trusted individuals who share your problems has proved to be quite therapeutic,” said English River Outfitters President Chuck Geerts, who worked with the Legislature to secure for disabled veterans an annual quota of 25 hard-to-get non-resident Iowa deer tags.

'This is a pretty cool thing they've got going on here,” said Navy veteran Brett Word of Bloomington, Minn. 'It would be hard to get an Iowa tag without this program.”

Many of the veterans served by English River Outfitters, which operates a lodge in Washington County, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, said Arthur Tousignant, one of the organization's many volunteers.

Tousignant, of Mount Pleasant, who retired with full disability after 24 years as an Army combat engineer, said his own best therapy is helping younger veterans with similar problems.

Coralville Lake park ranger Justin Lind said the Corps was pleased to reserve about 800 acres of wooded lakeside habitat for the veterans.

'The Corps is managed by the Department of the Army and a lot of employees are vets. We like to help them and plan to do a lot more of it in the future,” said Lind, himself an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.

Three of the nine veterans bagged deer on Saturday, said English River Outfitters volunteer Dave Lewis.

After hunting Saturday and Sunday on the Corps property, any veterans who had not filled their tags would continue the hunt on the organization's Washington County property, Lewis said.